Minecraft Story Mode: Episode One

Telltale Games have recently added to their growing collection of immersive story oriented games with Minecraft Story Mode. I have to admit when I first heard the game title, I was thoroughly confused, but then I found out it was from Telltale and confusion gave way to excitement.

Minecraft isn’t really a game I thought could be adapted to a storyline, and that was where most of my confusion came from. There just didn’t seem to be much to go on, and this is from someone who has played Minecraft for years. However, once I got playing it, I began to wonder how no one else had thought to adapt a game in its game universe.

Minecraft Story Mode is a lot of fun. I can’t think of any other way to start; it’s fun, a little cute, quirky, adventurous, and immersive, while remaining a very child-friendly game. I enjoyed playing it as much as my six year old daughter (a bigger Minecraft fan than I ever could be) enjoyed watching me playing it.

The character selection isn’t very customizable, but to be honest, it doesn’t really need to be. You begin with a choice of six appearances, three of which are female, three male, and all are named Jesse. Whatever you choose doesn’t really alter how you play at all, which I find somewhat refreshing. The game doesn’t just throw you right in, either. It takes its time with an opening sequence which introduces us to the kind of world we’ll be playing in, as well as some legends and heroes, which are a big focus for your character.

The fun really begins when you start playing as yourself. You, your friends Axel and Olivia, and your pet pig Reuben, are preparing for the Ender Con build competition, and your team are immediately played up as the underdogs. The responses you can give to other characters in the game give you a lot of options; you can play the supportive goodie-two-shoes, a neutral buddy, or an outright meanie. Alternatively, you can choose to say nothing at all, adding some realism when someone says something that’s just plain stupid.

Each response leads to different occurrences in the storyline, too. You can win or lose the build competition, you can make friends or enemies of the other teams, etc. At one point I decided I wanted to lose the pig, and succeeded for a while. It was great!

I won’t give away too much about storyline, so let’s talk about gameplay. This is where things get a little more complicated. While I’ve heard it’s a little easier on PC, on Xbox I found moving around, investigating items, and fighting enemies to be a little tedious at first. The camera angles are weird when you are free to move around, and switching between multiple enemies while fighting also messes up the camera angles a little. You get used to it, but for people thinking about getting this game for their kids, you may need to lend them a hand at first.

The music in the game was also very refreshing. They haven’t reused tracks from the original game, but have a new soundtrack featuring songs that stay true to the sound of each theme from the original game. I especially loved their take on the Nether music.

Overall, I really enjoyed episode one. Jesse and their friends are a bunch of mismatched underdogs who have been landed with saving the world, which is a trope that can never be overused, to be honest, especially in games that aim to be child and adult friendly. It’s no Walking Dead or Tales From The Borderlands, but was still adventurous enough to entertain both me and my daughter. We’re both very excited for episode two, and you’ll definitely find me talking about it again.

Have you played it yet? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!

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About The Author

Graphic designer from Donegal with little to no ability to like things casually (go big or go home) and who constantly needs more Tolkien tattoos. Sometimes I'll add a few words or an article of my own here and there, but mostly I just make stuff look pretty.

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RAID 2018 is a gaming event, by gamers, for gamers. Offering BYOC LAN tournaments, video game concerts, talks from industry professionals and much more, we're banking on this being the best

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RAID 2018 is a gaming event, by gamers, for gamers. Offering BYOC LAN tournaments, video game concerts, talks from industry professionals and much more, we’re banking on this being the best gaming event in Ireland during 2018!